Potted Pre-Raphaelites: Britain’s Colonial Plant Trade and the Victorian Avant-Garde

Recent monographs and exhibitions on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood have concentrated on situating this nineteenth-century British art movement within canonical histories of Western visual culture, with a recurrent emphasis on Old Master painting and European modernism. Past scholarship has also examined the depiction of local British flora in Pre-Raphaelite art. By contrast, the impact of colonial economic systems on the Pre-Raphaelites has received less scrutiny. This paper analyzes Pre-Raphaelite paintings that feature ornamental houseplants imported from British colonies in the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. Departing from previous narratives about the European context of Pre-Raphaelitism, I develop a global and ecopolitical framework for reinterpreting this movement’s botanical imagery.

My paper argues that the botanical motifs in Pre-Raphaelite art conceal beneath their leaves the stories of colonial activities that brought certain plants to the forefront of the Victorian imagination. Drawing upon critical histories of Britain’s plantation economy, I explore the transnational significance of imported houseplants, such as azaleas and geraniums, in Pre-Raphaelite paintings of the 1850s through 70s. From private greenhouses to lush window boxes, the artwork of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and other prominent members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle contain elaborate botanical displays reflective of the Victorian houseplant industry. Because of their entangled history with trade networks of the British Empire, houseplants offer a springboard for understanding how Pre-Raphaelite artists participated in economic systems that defined the modern world. My paper contributes to current scholarly discussions about the colonial commodities that shaped British art of the long nineteenth century.